Nilekani says Infosys hired over 19,000 graduates in India last year

Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani on Saturday said the IT major has continued to strengthen its talent pool by recruiting 19,230 graduates in India and 1,941 outside the country to serve its clients' burgeoning demand for digital acceleration.

Speaking at the company's 40th annual general meeting, Nilekani noted that Infosys is well-positioned for another year of "market-leading performance" in a post-pandemic, cloud-first digital era.

"We continued to strengthen our talent pool by recruiting 19,230 graduates in India and 1,941 – both graduates and associate degree holders – outside India to serve our clients' burgeoning demand for digital acceleration. We expanded our US hiring commitment to 25,000 by 2022 with an additional 12,000 new American jobs across a variety of roles," he said.

He further stated: "As part of our continued expansion into Canada, we also committed to double Infosys' Canadian workforce to 4,000 employees by 2023. In the UK, we announced plans to create 1,000 digital jobs to fuel post-pandemic growth".

Read | IT companies set to slash 3 million jobs by 2022 due to automation to save $100 billion: Report

Nilekani said Infosys had industry-leading, healthy revenue growth at 5 per cent in constant currency, totalling $13.6 billion in 2020-21.

Its large transformation deals peaked to an all-time high of $14.1 billion, with 66 per cent being net new, he said.

"While a challenging 2020 has ushered in a 2021 fraught with uncertainty, one thing is clearly evident: Infosys is well-positioned for another year of market-leading performance in a post-pandemic, cloud-first, distinctly digital era. The dramatic shift to living and working online has altered the entire business landscape in irrevocable ways," he noted.

The Aadhaar architect said over the last three and a half years, Infosys has built a highly credible market position for itself as a global digital services and consulting provider of choice for enterprises.

Also Read | No job loss in IT sector, top 5 firms to hire 96,000 in FY22, says Nasscom

"While the pandemic put this to a test, the results we delivered, the resilience we have displayed and the brand strength that we have accrued clearly shows how well-placed we are to thrive and to help our clients thrive in challenging but exciting digital-first markets...we will seize the moment to build on this head start to expand our market share further as we serve global enterprises in their digital acceleration journey," he said.

Nilekani pointed out that the company has expanded its financial commitment towards Covid-19 relief to Rs 200 crore, supporting community efforts in the country.

For employees and their families in India, the company has set up vaccination centres at its campuses and Covid-19 care centres across locations; collaborated with hospitals and ambulance services; facilitated access to oxygen and medicines; and deepened employee support.

"Globally, we implemented more than 900 employee wellbeing initiatives to help them better manage these trying times," he said.